Speech #910181727

Sixth preferenceskilled and unskilled workers in short supply: not to exceed 10 percent of the overall limitation. Seventh preferencerefugees: not to exceed 6 percent of the overall limitation. Nonpreferenceother immigrants: numbers not used by the seven preference categories. A prerequisite for nonpreference classification is a labor certification under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a) (14). or satisfactory evidence that provisions of that section do not apply to the aliens case. Unfortunately. good intentions have had bad results. Aimed at ending the obnoxious national origins system which was really a disguise for barring eastern Europeans by keying immigration quotas to the number of members of their national group in this country in 1920the new system. which took full effect on July 1. 1968. has severely limited Irish immigration. as well as that of other western European groups. In fiscal year 1966. preference and nonpreference visas issued in Dublinthe only place in Ireland where visas are issuedtotaled only 2.130. In fiscal year 1967. this number dropped to 1.625. In fiscal year 1968. the total was 2.167. And in fiscal year 1969. ending on June 30. 1969. the first fiscal year in which the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was fully in effect. the decline was even more drastic. The total number of preference and nonpreference visas issued in Dublin amounted to 538. The past 8 months show no improvement in this picture. the figure from July 1969 through February 1970 stands at 363. Needless to say. this situation has been of great concern to many Members of the House. In 1965. when the new Immigration and Nationality Act was being considered by the Congress. we were assured by the Department of State hat under its provisions Ireland would be able to qualify for approximately 5.200 places per year. As the statistics all too clearly show. this prediction missed the mark by far. The number of immigrants from Ireland has fallen far below the yearly average of 7.000 which existed for the decade prior to 1965. Two years ago. I introduced legislation to make additional visas available to nationals of those countries where the average immigration has declined sharply as a result uf the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. This past year. on the opening day of the first session of the 91st Congress. I again introduced this legislation as H.R. 165.